This section provides background information related to the present disclosure, which is not necessarily prior art.
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) assemblies often include an HVAC case, which typically houses a heater core and an evaporator. First and second portions of the HVAC case are coupled together with a fastener. While current fasteners are suitable for their intended use, they are subject to improvement. For example, current fasteners are large and protrude a great distance from the HVAC case, thereby making it difficult to accommodate existing fasteners in the areas of newer automobiles designated to receive the HVAC assembly. Furthermore, current fasteners are not self-tuning. In other words, current fasteners cannot automatically adjust to securely couple the first and second portions of the HVAC case together, and thus must be adjusted and customized for the particular HVAC case. The present teachings advantageously provide for an improved fastener for an HVAC case that addresses the shortcomings of current fasteners, and provides numerous additional advantages as one skilled in the art will recognize.